Biodiversity

Yemen hosts a variety of habitats
which range from coastal mangroves, shrub lands and dunes along the coastal
plains to the eastern deserts and an array of montane habitats that reach
elevations of up to 3760 m at Jabel Al-NabiShauib, the highest point on the Arabian Peninsula. For millennia, the Yemeni people were able to
utilize their biological resources in a sustained fashion. In recent decades,
however, the area of
natural habitat has decreased or been degraded, through over-exploitation of
range resources, land conversion, poor agricultural practices and the pressures
of an ever expanding population with a current growth rate of some 3.5% per
annum, one of the highest rate in the region.

Yemen’s habitats harbour a great
number of unique species of plants. Plant populations are thought to have
declined considerably, and agricultural production has undergone dramatic
changes due to the expansion of Qat plantations at the expense of other crops.
The centuries old harmonious relationship of people and environment that has
characterized Yemen<’s
culture and history is rapidly disappearing. These alarming trends demand
urgent conservation attention, if even representative portions of Yemen’s
natural biotic wealth are to remain for future generations.